In the past year, blood donations from additional study subjects have been obtained as part of this GCRC protocol to better understand the IgE-mediated mechanisms of food allergies and, in particular, of food-induced atopic dermatitis. As part of our investigation, we became particularly interested in the role that a peanut lectin glycoprotein, peanut agglutin (PNA), may help in the development of food allergies such as peanut allergy. We have been able to define specific conditions that upregulate PNA binding by lymphocytes, and we are currently refining our understanding of the conditions under which PNA induces pro-allergic cytokine secretion and/or IgE synthesis. An abstract of this work was presented at the 1999 AAAAI Annual Meeting.